Page 39 - Scottish Alchemists

Patrick Ruthven.

The ancient family of Ruthven, so well known in Scottish history, was
of Saxon or perhaps Danish origin, and is said to have been settled in
Scotland before the middle of the twelfth century. Sir William de Ruthven
was created a baron by James III in 1488. His grandson William, the second
baron, was one of the first who embraced the Reformation. Patrick, the third
Lord Ruthven, who, as heir of his mother had been also created Lord
Dirleton, was the chief actor in the assassination of David Rizzio in 1566.
The first Earl of Gowrie was William, the son of Patrick Lord Ruthven, and
is well known from the enterprise called “the Raid of Ruthven,” in which he
carried off James the Sixth, and detained him in his castle for ten months.
For this treason against the king he was executed at Edinburgh in 1584. The
first Earl left a family of thirteen children, five of whom were boys :-1.
James, the second Earl, who died in 1588; 2. John, the third Earl, born about
1578; 3. Alexander, born in January 1580-81 (these latter were the two
brothers who were killed at Perth on the occasion of the Gowrie conspiracy
in 1600); 4. William; and, 5. Patrick. At the time of the execution of the Earl,
William and Patrick were of very tender age, the former being probably
about three years old, the latter about as many weeks.

It is a remarkable circumstance that the members of this family, so much
mixed up with the turbulent and violent proceedings of the period when they
flourished, were at the same time distinguished for their great mental
attainments and for the study of the natural sciences. “Patrick, the third Lord
Ruthven,” says Dr Craik, “who is commonly thought to have been little
better than a barbarian, received a learned education at the University of St
Andrews, and was an expert clerk and man of literary tastes and
accomplishments, as ready when occasion demanded with his pen as he was
with his dagger.” He wrote an account of the death of Rizzio, and in it he
relates an anecdote which implies not only that he had the reputation of
dealing in the supernatural, but that he would himself upon occasion
encourage and take advantage of the belief in his forbidden knowledge. He
had once, it seems, presented Mary Stuart with a diamond ring, which he
told her had the virtue of preserving her from poison; and the Earl of
Murray, either feeling or affecting a horror of such a recognition of the

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